Although these three
discs are available separately, it seems
sensible to discuss them together, in
order to be able to consider something
of the composer’s developing use of
the quartet form.
Bacewicz’s five mature
quartets – nos. 3-7 – are amongst the
most interesting of quartet sequences
from the second half of the twentieth
century. Ranging in date from shortly
after the Second World War to the mid
1960s they reflect both a striking personal
development as a composer and a highly
intelligent response to a complex politico-social
environment.
The two early quartets
are pleasant and redolent with promise.
That to which she gave the number 1
was one of two quartets written during
the composer’s studies at the Warsaw
Conservatory, from which she graduated
in 1932, and was presented as part of
her final composition examination. It
was premiered in Paris on 26 April 1939
by The Figueroa Quartet, as part of
a programme sponsored by the Paris Society
of Young Polish Musicians. Essentially
neo-classical in manner, its three movements
have energy but relatively little that
is very individual. The spiky first
movement has some teasing rhythmic effects
to recommend it; the final vivo begins
jauntily but the seemingly simple mood
is questioned as the movement develops.
These two outer movements frame a well-crafted
set of variations on a Lithuanian folksong,
‘Zakwitnij biale jabluszko’ – Bacewicz
was the daughter of a Lithuanian father
and a Polish mother. The variations
on ‘Zakwitnij biale jabluszko’ are delicate,
but not without an edge of menace at
moments, the unmannered, confident use
of silence being striking in this movement.
During the 1930s Bacewicz
travelled, studied and played (as a
violinist) extensively. She studied
briefly in Paris – composition with
Nadia Boulanger, violin with André
Touret; she taught at the State Conservatory
in Lodz; she returned to Paris for further
violin studies with Carl Flesh. After
her marriage in 1936, she was Principal
Violin
with the Polish Radio Orchestra. Life
in Warsaw during the War was, unsurprisingly,
very difficult, but Bacewicz continued
to compose. Amongst the works produced
was Quartet no.2, which had its premiere
in the artists’ café run by the composer
Bolesław Woytowicz. Though
it has some rewarding passages – not
least the writing for cello in the main
theme of the first movement – it isn’t
Bacewicz at her most inspired.
After the war, Stalinist
ideological control over artistic life
was intense, but concert performances
still took Bacewicz abroad from time
to time. She was able to return to Paris,
which she always found stimulating.
It was during one such visit that her
third quartet was written. The Parisian
‘tradition’ of modern neo-classicism
is still evident in the work, but there
is a new depth and weight to the music.
The opening allegro is in lucidly
worked sonata form, graced by many subtleties.
Tonality is to a degree implicit, certainly
not dogmatically insisted upon. There
are enough (gentle) affirmations of
F major for the abrupt switch to B major
at the end of the movement to come as
an enjoyable surprise. The effect is
a not unpleasant avoidance of absolute
resolution. The following andante
is a graceful creation, full of ideas,
with some elegant melodic phrases and
some striking harmonies. In the closing
vivo the key relationships are
less ambiguous or implicit. There is
some fine solo writing for both viola
and violin and touches, especially in
the third theme, of folk traditions.
Everywhere in the movement there is
wit and invention. It is not to deny
the individuality of the work if one
says that it clearly owes much to her
time as a student of Nadia Boulanger.
It was with the fourth
quartet that Bacewicz attracted a greater
degree of international attention. It
was composed at a busy and creative
time for the composer – at much the
same time she wrote her first Cello
Concerto, her Second Symphony, her Fifth
Sonata for Violin and Piano and her
fourth Piano Concerto (Bacewicz was
an accomplished pianist as well as violinist).
The Fourth Quartet was awarded first
prize at the International Composers
Competition in Liège in Belgium,
won a National Prize in Poland and in
1953 became a required piece for competitors
in the Geneva International String Quartet
Competition. It isn’t hard to see why
it should have been so popular, nor
why it has been recorded a number of
times by a variety of quartets. The
relatively untroubled nature of the
third quartet (in which war time suffering
is only intermittently audible) is replaced
by a much stronger sense of conflict,
especially in the first two of its three
movements. Without taking things too
literally, it is hard not to hear in
this music something of the contemporary
Polish situation, something of the conflict
between private and public worlds. The
opening of the first movement is expressively
disturbed; the slow movement takes a
folk-like melody as its main theme and
explores it harmonically rich fashion.
The dance-like allegro giocoso
– modelled on the oberek - which
closes the work is a sonata-rondo which
simultaneously affirms affinities with
Bartók and Parisian neo-classicism.
The Amar Corde Quartet match most of
their competition here – not necessarily
by being ‘better’, but in giving a coherent,
individual reading.
Bacewicz’s Fifth Quartet,
written some four years later, has attracted
less general attention, but is a fine,
adventurous work. Its four movements
are densely written, the dominant idiom
much more radical than that of its forerunners.
In the opening moderato there
is a fascinating contrast between the
energy of the first subject and the
almost static second subject – played
particularly well in this account. The
second movement is a spirited and wittily
worked-out double fugue; the third movement
(‘Corale’) is exceptionally beautiful,
a solemn chorale framing a more animated
central section. The finale is a theme
and (six) variations, the variations
relatively free. The first makes striking
use of glissandi and syncopations, the
fourth is notable for the dissonant
proclamations for viola and the sixth
a lovely andante. The Amar Corde Quartet
is heard at something like their best
in this utterly convincing performance
of this excellent Fifth Quartet.
In her Sixth Quartet
Bacewicz makes selective use of twelve-tone
principles (especially in the first
movement) and a wide range of string
effects. The quartet is full of intriguing
colours and techniques; muted harmonics,
tremolandi, passages played sul ponticello
and others marked saltando comme
percussione. In these respects the
work clearly has affinities with contemporary
developments in Polish music –with the
so-called ‘sonorism’ of Penderecki,
Lutosławski
and Bogusław Schaeffer, for example.
Adam Walaciński’s booklet notes
tell us when the Quartet was premiered,
by the Parrenin Quartet, it gave rise
to some controversy: “the older generation
attacked (Bacewicz) for the alleged
betraying of the established
ideals, the young criticized the unsatisfactory
radicalism". There is, as such
reactions might suggest, a certain quality
of eclectic compromise about this quartet;
some of its parts are perhaps more satisfying
than the sum of its parts. But Bacewicz
is too interesting a musical thinker
for the work to anything less than stimulating,
even if it isn’t wholly satisfying.
The last of Bacewicz’s
quartets sees her reverting to a three-movement
form, allegro – grave
– con vivezza. Again there are
many expressive effects – some striking
swoops and glissandi, some resonant
drones – but they serve a musical logic
which clearly belongs to the great tradition
of the string quartet, within the sonata
form of the first movement, the ternary
song of the second and the rondo of
the third. The closing rondo, indeed,
has a playfulness which is almost Haydnesque
at a deep level, for all the surface
differences. There is a starker quality
to the earlier movements, especially
the compelling, if uncomfortable, central
movement. This is a fascinating quartet,
in no sense a farewell, since it speaks
of future possibilities more than of
retrospection. Bacewicz was only sixty
at the time of her death – she died
suddenly, of a heart attack. These seven
quartets speak of a constantly growing
and developing musical imagination,
which yet has an inner core of great
consistency, and I, for one, wish that
there were more such works from her
pen. It is good to have one quartet’s
reading of the whole sequence and the
Amar Corde Quartet clarify the lines
of continuity and change very effectively,
in a series of well judged performances,
their sound marked by sure-footed internal
balance.
This set of discs also
offers – as a kind of bonus – the opportunity
to hear Bacewicz’s two works for Piano
Quintet, in the performance of which
the Amar Corde Quartet is joined by
Waldemar Malicki. The first Piano Quintet
is a powerful work, its opening movement
beginning with a brooding introduction
which starts a series of contrasts and
juxtapositions sustained throughout
the work in a constant switchback ride
of moods and tempos. The yearning third
movement is particularly fine. I have
heard no other performance of this piece,
and I mean no disrespect to the present
artists if I say that I would like to
– it is simply that the work is so rich
and rewarding that it would certainly
lend itself profitably to a range of
different interpretations. But the present
recording will do very well to be going
on with. The second Piano Quintet is
another interesting work, less traditional
in idiom; its central larghetto
full of delicate and subtle effects,
the strings often rather eerily in dialogue
with some relatively orthodox writing
for the piano. The closing allegro
giocoso is a sparkling movement,
full of zest and inventiveness – listen
to these CDs in volume order and it
makes a resounding conclusion.
The more I hear Bacewicz’s
music the more impressed I am. The string
quartets constitute an important series
of compositions, and the two piano quintets
are engaging works. This is a valuable
set of CDs, which will surely be of
great interest both to followers of
modern Polish music and to all who listen
with any regularity to the chamber music
of the last half century.
Glyn Pursglove
See reviews by David Blomenberg
(Volume
1 ; Volume
2 ; Volume
3 )
Acte
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